time he came to the words,--

"_Out_ comes the little one,
_Out_ comes the pretty one,"

he stooped down as he danced and made himself look as much like a dwarf
as he possibly could.

When he had finished the Dwarf Song, Jose tucked his guitar under his
arm, and bowed politely to Dona Teresa and Pancho.

"Adios!" he said. "May you rest well."

"Adios, adios!" shouted all the children.

And Pancho and Dona Teresa and the Twins replied: "Adios! God give you
sweet sleep."

Then Jose and the children went away, and the tinkle of the guitar grew
fainter and fainter in the distance. When they could no longer hear it,
Dona Teresa went into the cabin, unrolled the mats, and laid out the
pillows, and soon the Twins and their father and mother were all sound
asleep on their hard beds.

When at last everything was quiet, the red rooster came stepping round
from behind the house, and looked at the dying coals of the fire as if
he wondered whether they were good to eat. He seemed to think it best
not to risk it, however, for he flew up into the fig tree once more and
settled himself for the night.

[Illustration]

IV

TONIO'S BAD DAY

[Illustration]

IV

TONIO'S BAD DAY

I

It is hard for us to understand how they tell what season it is in a
country like Mexico, where there is no winter, and no snow except on the
tops of high mountains, and where flowers bloom all the year round.

Tonio and Tita can tell pretty well by the way they go to school. During
the very hot dry weather of April and May there is vacation. In June,
when the rainy season begins, school opens again. Then, though the rain
pours down during some part of every day or night, in between times the
sky is so blue, and the sunshine so bright, and the air so sweet, that
the Twins like the rainy season really better than the dry.

If you should pass the open door of their school some day when it is in
session, you would hear a perfect Babel of voices all talking at once
and saying such things as this,--only they would say them in Spanish
instead of English,--

"The cat sees the rat. Run, rat, run. Two times six is thirteen, two
times seven is fifteen" (I hope you'd know at once that that was wrong).
"Mexico is bounded on the north by the United States of America, on the
east by the Gulf of Mexico, on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the ...
Cortez conquered Mexico in 1519 and brought the holy Catholic religion
to Mexico. The C